GAME OF THE WEEKNo. 3 Bentonville at No. 2
Fayetteville. Winner returns to Little Rock. Both advanced to the
state finals five of the past six seasons. This is their seventh
playoff meeting since 2007, including the third semifinal matchup.
Fayetteville holds a 4-2 postseason advantage, beating Bentonville
31-21 in last season's semifinals and 24-17 in the 2007
semis.Bentonville beat Fayetteville 24-21 Week 4 this fall.
Fayetteville led by a TD at halftime and tallied 60 yards more
offense, but the Tigers sacked Fayetteville QB Taylor Powell five
times in the first meeting. Bentonville won last week despite
leading rusher Jacob Clark (1,193 yards, 7.1 yards per carry) missing
the final three quarters with a strained neck. Clark likely returns
this week. Two-time, all-conference safety Aaron Estrada leads the
Tigers with 103 tackles while three-year starting outside linebacker
Dustin Adkins (92 tackles) looks like the team's top player. Junior
go-to receiver Kam'Ron Mays-Hunt (6-2, 170) has been lining up on
defense to stop opponent's top receivers. “We played really
well last week, especially on defense,” says Bentonville's
second-year coach Jody Grant. “We didn't play that great in the
first round (38-31 win) but looked better last week. Fayetteville
really hasn't been challenged since they played us the first time.
Everyone talks about (Fayetteville QB) Powell and (defensive tackle
Akial) Byers, but their running back (Terrance Rock) is a great
player. It's hard to beat a team twice in the same season, but we've
done it before. We just gotta go play and play well.”

Rock
totaled 150 yards offense, including two TD catches last week while
Fayetteville’s formidable defensive front helped hold Conway to 168
yards in a 35-0 second-round win. Byers (6-4, 275), a University of
Alabama commit, and Powell (6-2, 202), a Wake Forest commit, are on
the watch list for the Farm Bureau Insurance Awards Class 7A/6A
Players of the Year. Powell completed 13 of 21 for 226 yards and four
TDs with no interceptions last Friday. Watch extended highlights of Fayetteville's Week 2 win at Bryant.

THE
OTHER SEMIFINALNo. 4 Bryant at No. 1 North LR.North LR took
the top spot in hootens.com rankings Week 5 and looks to play for its
first state title in the modern playoff era. The undefeated Charging
Wildcats are less talented than recent seasons with no players owning
Division I scholarship offers (six have D-2 offers). As predicted,
North LR had less trouble with Cabot a week ago (extended highlights here) than it did in the
regular-season finale. The focused Charging Wildcats dispatched Cabot
by 30 points after getting by the Panthers 28-27 Week 10. North LR's
Alex Day looked healthy and better than ever running through and past
Cabot for 190 yards.North LR mercy-ruled Bryant 38-7 four weeks
ago (extended highlights here), limiting the Hornets to just three first downs in the first
half. Bryant QB Ren Hefley was constantly under pressure and sacked
five times as the Hornets finished with minus 2 yards rushing in the
first meeting. Since then, Bryant has beaten Conway, Springdale and
Springdale Har-Ber. The Hornets held a 20-2 halftime lead last Friday
at Har-Ber. Coach Buck James has guided Bryant to its first semifinal
appearance in his first season at the school with a sharp-tackling
defense. The Hornets intercepted three passes, forced three fumbles
and three turnovers on downs at Har-Ber. Bryant senior Hayden Ray
kicked field goals from 25, 44 and 49 yards while sophomore DB Andrew
Hayes recovered two fumbles last week and sophomore DT Kajuan
Robinson (6-2, 290), also a basketball player, looks like a D-1
college recruit. Robinson blocked a Har-Ber field goal and returned an interception to set up at score last week.

LAST WEEKHooten's Arkansas Football
correctly predicted 2 of 4 winners in Class 7A. For the season,
hootens.com is 79-25 (76 percent) predicting winners of games
involving Class 7A teams.

WEEK 13 PREDICTIONS
(favored team in CAPS followed by point spread)PLAYOFF SEMIFINALSBentonville at FAYETTEVILLE (4): See Game of the
WeekBryant at NORTH LR (15): See The Other Semifinal

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